for CRIRES, NACO and SINFONI, the Strehl ratio on the reference star (as applicable).

for instruments observing in the mid-IR (CRIRES and VISIR), the allowable maximum Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV)

the allowable twilight constraint that defines the earliest time in minutes with respect to the end of the astronomical twilight when the execution of the OB can be started (see the note below).

the allowable absolute time window for the start of the observation (i.e. for time critical events, multi-epoch monitoring)

the allowable local sidereal time range for the entire observation (e.g. for ADI observation)

for VLTI instruments, the availability of the desired baseline

The Observing Constraints are specified by the user at Phase 2 for each Observation Block. Since the execution conditions required by each programme are an important ingredient in the process of building up the Long Term Schedule of an observing semester, and thus determine which programmes can or cannot be scheduled, users are not allowed to specify at Phase 2 constraints that are more strict than those specified in the original proposal. Users can however relax the constraints during the submission of their Phase 2 material. The values in the OB constraint sets that are selected (and approved) during Phase 2 preparation (and review) cannot be changed later during the observing period.

Note about the twilight constraint: this observing constraint has been introduced to allow specifying start of observation with respect to the start of the night: e.g. to delay start of observations for faint targets until the sky gets darker, or allow starting observations for very bright targets during the twilight. The original motivation for this constraint is related to sky brightness in near-IR that is affected by excitation of OH lines, and is not affected by other constraints (e.g. moon distance/phase). It does not apply to astronomical twilight at the end of the night (i.e. sunrise).

General Classification Rules

Quality Control of OBs executed in Service Mode will be based on the specified constraints in the OB for airmass, atmospheric transparency, image quality/seeing, moon constraints, twilight constraint, as well as Strehl ratio for Adaptive Optics mode observations. If all constraints are fullfilled the OB will get assigned Quality Control grade "A", while the "B" quality control is assigned if some constraint is up to 10% violated. The observations with quality control grades A or B are completed, while those with quality control grade "C" (out of constraints) will be re-scheduled and may be repeated. In exceptional cases an OB may get status completed with quality grade "D", meaning that it was executed out of constraints but will not be repeated.

Note: for most instruments the image quality constraint as defined in the OB is judged against the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of a point source in the resulting image (or spectral image). For the instruments where the image quality cannot be directly measured (AO, VLTI, fibre instrument), it is either not used for classification or is obtained from the wavefront sensor of the active optics of the telescope.

Special Note for UT4 OB Classification Rules

Ellipticity was detected in some HAWK-I, MUSE and SINFONI observations from 07 May 2017 onwards when pointing away from the wind. The problem is under investigation and not yet understood. In the interrim there is an additional criterion imposed during OB classification, related to elongation, defined as 100*(1-B/A)%, where A and B are the FWHM on the major and minor axes, respectively.

For HAWK-I:

A. If elongation < 10% for most stars

B. If 10% < elongation < 20% for most stars

C. If 20% > elongation for most stars

For MUSE:

If there are stellar objects in the reconstructed cube FoV, adopt HAWK criteria.

If there are no stellar objects in the reconstructed cube FoV, use the SGS (slow guidance sensor) with criteria as above, but relaxed to 15% and 25% to account for the SGS distortions

If there are no stellar objects in the FoV or SGS the classification is based only on the average FWHM on the auto-guider.

For SINFONI:

For LGS/NGS no special ellipticity criteria are applied.

For NoAO the HAWK-I criteria are adopted only if

the target is a point source

the FWHM can be reliably measured (>100 ADU peak counts)

the PSF is resolved (FWHM > 4 pixels)

Additional Observing Constraints for KMOS

Image quality:

The image quality is measured on the reconstructed IFU images of the reference stars during acquisition and on reconstructed IFU images of point sources in the science exposures (if available), or on the guide probe otherwise (if all science targets are extended sources).

Lunar constraints:

Do not overspecify the Moon constraints! The Moon does not directly affect infrared observations, but it does affect the quality of the active optics corrections, in particular if the reference stars are too faint. It is recommended not to observe objects when they are closer than 30 degrees from the Moon. For KMOS, the Moon illumination (FLI) can be entirely relaxed in most cases by selecting FLI=1. Exceptions are observations with the IZ and YJ gratings, for which grey time and moon ditances up to 90 degree are acceptable.

Water vapour:

The precipitable water vapour (PWV) is a constraint that can be set in the Constraint Set of P2PP3. It can take values from 0.5 to 20.0 mm. The default value for KMOS is set to 20.0 mm since water vapour does not affect much spectra with KMOS resolution. If, however, a PWV value below 10.0 mm is needed a waiver can be requested. The KMOS ETC can be used to simulate the influence of different PWV values.

Twilight:

The twilight constraint in the Constraint Set of P2PP3 can be used to define the earliest time with respect to the end of the astronomical twilight when the execution of the OB can be started. The constraint can take values between -30 (= OB can be executed 30 minutes before the end of twilight) and +15 (OB should start not earlier than 15 minutes after twilight). In particular, KMOS K-band observations can already be taken before the end of the astronomical twilight.

Additional Classification Rules for KMOS

In case that one or more of the pick-off arms of KMOS cannot be used because of technical failures or the observations of one ore more IFUs fail for other reasons AND rotator optimization is allowed, the following classification rules apply:

If <10% of priority 1 sources at the Telescope at Science position are lost the observation is classified with QC grade B

If >10% of priority 1 sources at the Telescope at Science position are lost the observation is classified with QC grade C (i.e. the observation must be repeated)

If <25% of sources at the Telescope at Science position of any priority (but at most 10% of priority 1 sources) are lost the observation is classified with QC grade B

If >25% of sources at the Telescope at Science position of any priority are lost the observation is classified with QC grade C

If the the rotator optimization is suppressed, the following rules apply:

If <25% of sources of any priority (even priority 1 sources) at the Telescope at Science position are lost the observation is classified with QC grade B

If >25% of sources of any priority at the Telescope at Science position are lost the observation is classified with QC grade C

Note that for the above rules science targets that are defined in the Telescope at Sky position are not considered. If a user applies a strategy where 2 arms are allocated to the same target, one at the science position, and the other at the sky position, and the loss of more than 10% of priority 1 targets is not acceptable, this should be clearly stated in the Readme file.

Also, the above rules do not apply to observations in mosaic mode. Instead, if more than 2 arms are not available in mosaic mode the user will be asked whether the observations still make sense.

Additionally, for all modes, the user can accept the loss of more priority 1, 2 or 3 targets than indicated in the above rules, if clear instructions in the Readme file are given for how many and which IFUs a loss is acceptable.